croatia Will the ‘Dream’ Come True?

If you thought the Croatian Dream was just another wild fantasy that would never come true, think again: The project’s developers say they're going to break ground on their first 18-hole course this year, and they hope to build four more before they’re through.

Split-based Profectus Grupa has called its massive mini-city “a true example of an ‘American Dream’ being achieved here in Croatia.” It'll be realized on 12,500 acres in Doli, along the Adriatic coast, and could eventually include numerous houses, a dozen or more hotels, a casino, two marinas, a business park, a film studio, exhibition space for trade shows, an airport, a university campus, a hospital, a theme park, and lots of other attractions.

The first golf course, part of a community called Three Sisters, is being designed by Steve Forrest of Hills & Forrest International Golf Course Architects. Vicenco Blagaic, Profectus Grupa’s CEO, has said that he expects it to be “one of the finest new courses in continental Europe.”

Forrest, who’s based in Toledo, Ohio, has described the track as “a resort-style course that will interest and naturally accommodate the full range of players.”

The track will take shape along what’s been described an “elevated, rocky coastline” that lacks soil. The developers will need to truck in dirt and sand before construction can begin.