The Week That Was: May 1, 2011

india Jammu & Kashmir Opens Its First Course

Late last month, the government of Jammu & Kashmir, the northernmost state in India, made some history by opening its first golf course.

Jammu Tawi Golf Course, a nine-hole track in Sidhra, has been designed by K. D. Bagga, a New Delhi-based architect and golf consultant who once served as Ron Fream’s eyes and ears in India. The government says it'll eventually grow to 18 holes, probably by 2013, although nobody appears to be willing to set a solid construction schedule.

More than 8 million tourists reportedly pass through Jammu & Kashmir every year, and the government believes a network of quality golf courses will get them to stop and stay a while. The state’s tourism department has built a nine-hole track in Sanasar, and, with its encouragement, private groups are expected to soon open courses in Pahalgam and Gulmarg.


Bagga, who retired from the military years ago, is one of India's most prolific architects -- he's responsible for about a dozen courses -- and has long been the nation's premier advocate of affordable golf. Like Fream, he's designed courses that serve as centerpieces for golf communities -- notably Kensville Golf & Country Club in Ahmedabad -- but he's best known for smaller, down-scale courses that he often builds with inexperienced local volunteers.

“My designs are economical to develop and environmentally friendly,” Bagga recently told me. “I design golf courses using the natural layout [of the land] and include the existing features into the strategy of the game.”

Though he should be taking it easy, these days Bagga is also working on more than a half-dozen courses in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and other cities.

china Welcome to Hainan!

A fun fact about tourism on Hainan Island: Nearly 25 million tourists visited “China's Hawaii” last year, according to the Indian Express, but only about 600,000 of them came from outside China.

Now you know why tourism officials in the People's Republic market the island so intently to international travelers.

cuba The Next Revolution

Speaking of vacations, 1 million tourists visited Cuba during the first quarter of this year, an increase of 10.4 percent from the same period in 2010.

Based on that result, the nation's tourism ministry predicts that in 2011 Cuba will open its doors to more than 2.5 million visitors. If they're right, Cuba will set a record for tourist visits.

Canadians are Cuba's most frequent visitors, but the island also receives substantial numbers from Russia, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Chile, Spain, Venezuela, and Belgium.

And as you know, Cuba is banking on golf to further boost its tourism revenues.

morocco Is Gary Player Being Played?

Gary Player's design firm has been hired to revitalize the hum-drum golf complex at Royal Golf de Marrakech in Marrakech, Morocco. Player's main charge is to create a tournament-worthy 18-hole track at Royal Golf, while maintaining nine holes for the pleasure of the club's members.

Now that we've dispensed with the news, I'd like to turn your attention to the press release that announced the commission. Call me cynical, but I hardly recognize the “Gary Player” who appears in it.

For starters, the press release states that Player's company is “widely recognized as the world's most successful golf course architectural firm.”


Really? By what standard? It's not by the sheer number of courses the firm has designed, because Nicklaus Design, to pick out the first name that pops into my head, has surely done more. And it can't be on the basis of the number of top-rated courses in Player's portfolio, because on that score the firm barely registers. I just took a look at Golfweek's recently published list of the Top 100 Modern Courses, and there's isn't a single Player-designed track on it. All of Player's prime competitors -- a group that includes Pete Dye, Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Doak, and Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw -- are all represented multiple times.

So if we aren't talking quantity or quality, what are we talking about?

The press release also calls Player “a legend in his own time.” This is a powerful statement and, as far as I'm concerned, one that's absolutely true. When the histories of golf are written, Player will always get a chapter for himself, and most deservedly so. However, I shouldn't need to point out that the phrase completely loses its impact when a fellow says it about himself.

But what really riles me is a quote, ostensibly from Player, that's prominently placed at the top of the press release. Instead of sounding honest and authentic and genuine, it sounds characterless and contrived and empty, as if it had been written following a formula learned in Public Relations 101.

By rote, Player tells us how excited he is to oversee the renovation (“This is going to be a really fun and interesting project”), whispers sweet nothings about the site (“It is a beautiful property”), praises the nation (“Morocco is a wonderful country”), and dutifully thanks his client (“I am honored to have been chosen”).

I guarantee you, this quote was written by a jaded individual who's written entirely too many press releases and no longer takes his or her job seriously.

All of this would be funny, a sort of comedy of errors, if tending to the image of a golf legend wasn't serious business. Player is no mere golf champion. Over the years, he's proved himself to be thoughtful, articulate, and compassionate. Throughout his career, he's been willing to take unpopular stands, buck conventional wisdom, stir controversies, and point golf design and development in directions it needs to go.

Gary, I've said this before and I'll say it again: You deserve better.

Heck, you're a legend in your own time.